Jan 28, 2019
In the many relationships that you navigate in life, do you find that one is significantly tougher to manage? This could be because a partner, spouse, friend, or co-worker has a personality disorder. There could be times where you are uncertain as to whether their moral compass truly points North. The focus of this episode is a few personality disorders, namely narcissism and anti-social personality disorder (i.e. sociopathy).
Narcissists
A narcissist is someone who has a pervasive pattern of thriving on/stirring up conflict, showing no empathy and neglecting to validate the experiences or feelings of others. Narcissists can be emotionally explosive, exploitive and abusive when they don’t get the attention that they crave.
The first guest speaker is Ingrid from Show Boundaries, who explains the ‘Observe rather than Absorb’ approach to navigating a relationship with a narcissist. This method involves learning about the methods and techniques a narcissist will employ by observing them and my paying attention to what is happening inside of your body. In terms of dealing with them in the moment Ingrid explains the ‘Crack in the CD’ method.
Dr. Karyl McBride wrote a book about this that includes a checklist of how to tell if your partner is a Narcissist. For more information about Dr. McBride’s work you can visit her website here.
To view the checklist you can read Dr. McBride’s article in Psychology Today here.
Anti-social Personality Disorder:
Along with narcissism there are pervasive signs from an individual’s childhood that display in those with anti-social personality disorder. Those who have anti-social personality disorder have a failure to conform to social norms and legal behaviour, they are impulsive and lack the ability to plan ahead, and they display a real lack of remorse for their actions.
Psychopaths vs. Sociopaths
Psychopaths and sociopaths lack empathy, do not care about social rules/behaviours, and have no remorse/guilt for their actions. While sociopaths make up 4% of the general population, psychopaths only make up 1% of the population. Psychopaths are often well-educated and have a career, and their behaviour is controlled and manipulative. This greatly differs from sociopaths who are often uneducated and unable to keep a steady job, who are spontaneous rage-a-holics
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